Avalanche at Canucks preview

AVALANCHE (27-18-3) at CANUCKS (19-24-6)
10 p.m. ET; SNP, ALT, NHL.TV

Barrie, who was injured Dec. 23, leads Colorado defensemen and is fifth on the team in scoring with 27 points (four goals, 23 assists) in 34 games this season. The Avalanche went 10-3-0 without him.
Colorado has lost two straight games after winning their previous 10. Their win streak (Dec. 29 to Jan. 22), was the longest in the NHL this season.
The Canucks have lost three of their past four games and have been shut out in two of their past three, including a 4-0 loss against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. Vancouver is 5-14-2 in its past 21 games.

Players to watch

Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in his past 12 games, and is three points from tying his NHL best of 63 points set in his rookie season of 2013-14.
Canucks forward Brock Boeser, who was named MVP of the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Sunday after scoring two goals in two games to help the Pacific Division win, leads the team in goals (24) and points (43).

They said it

"It's been a long month for me so I'm excited to get back out there. Obviously, the guys did an unbelievable job while I was out. I was nervous to come back because they were winning so I think it's a good time for me to come back." -- Tyson Barrie on returning to the Avalanche lineup
"I couldn't have ever dreamt of something like that, it's something you dream about as a kid and I had a really fun time meeting idols I watched growing up." -- Brock Boeser on his experience at the All-Star Game

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Colin Wilson -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Nail Yakupov
Gabriel Bourque -- Tyson Jost --
A.J. Greer
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Tyson Barrie -- Anton Lindholm
Samuel Girard -- Patrik Nemeth
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
Scratched: Dominic Toninato, David Warsofsky
Injured:Semyon Varlamov (groin), Sven Andrighetto (leg), Vladislav Kamenev (arm), J.T. Compher (illness), Mark Barberio (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Brock Boeser
Loui Eriksson -- Bo Horvat -- Thomas Vanek
Sven Baertschi -- Brandon Sutter -- Markus Granlund
Brendan Gaunce -- Sam Gagner -- -- Jake Virtanen
Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher
Ben Hutton -- Chris Tanev
Michael Del Zotto -- Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Anders Nilsson
Scratched: Nic Dowd, Derrick Pouliot
Injured: Erik Gudbranson (back)

Status report

Wilson returns after missing four games with an illness. … Gudbranson has resumed skating but will miss his fifth game and is day-to-day, according to coach Travis Green.

Stat pack

Rantanen has 14 points (five, nine assists) in his past 10 games. … Edler has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past eight games.